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says, have become commercials
that sell, comfort, or excite—
culture has become an industry.
This flattening of the two
dimensions of high culture and
social reality has led to a one-
dimensional culture that easily
determines and controls our
individual and social perspectives.
There is no other world, or way to
live. Marcuse claims that in saying
this he is not overstating the power
of the media, because the social
messages we receive as adults are
merely reinforcing the same ones
that we have been hearing since
our birth—we were conditioned
as children to receive them.
The disappearance of class
The compressing of culture and
reality is reflected in an apparent
leveling of class structure. If all art
forms and mass media are part of a
homogenous whole, where nothing
stands outside of societal approval,
people from all social classes will
inevitably start doing some of the
same things. Marcuse points to
the examples of a typist who is
made up as attractively as her
boss’s daughter, or the worker
and his boss enjoying the same
TV program. However, according
to Marcuse, this kind of
assimilation does not indicate
the disappearance of classes—
it actually reveals the extent to
which the needs that serve the
establishment have become shared
by the underlying population.
The result of this is that classes
are no longer in conflict. The social
controls have been internalized,
and Marcuse says that we are
hypnotized into a state of extreme
conformity where no one will rebel.
There is no longer a sublimated
realm of the soul or spirit of inner
man, because everything has
been or can be translated into
operational terms, problems, and
solutions. We have lost a sense of
inner truth and real need, and can
no longer critique society because
we cannot find a way to stand
outside of it without appearing to
have lost our sanity.CULTURE AND IDENTITY
Marcuse’s ideas about a society
that includes everything—in which
pluralism defeats the oppositional
power of any idea—is particularly
relevant in a global age that is
dominated by a proliferation of new
media. Marcuse was always aware
of the importance of scientific
knowledge in shaping and
organizing not just society but
myriad aspects of everyday life.
Crucially, and often from a radical
and politicized perspective, he
could see the potential for both
emancipation and domination,
which makes his emphasis on
the cultural conversation and the
role of new technologies in its
service especially pertinent. Do
these things really bring about
social change and liberation,
or are they simply tools for
increasing manipulation and
social oppression by a powerful
ruling class? ■Intellectual freedom would
mean the restoration
of individual thought
now absorbed by
mass communication
and indoctrination.
Herbert MarcuseThe power of the media
The state and its
consumerist forces
control the media
in the modern world.The media reflects
and disseminates the
state’s dominant values
and ideologies, and
manipulates society
into buying goods,
services, and lifestyles.Society and individuals
are lulled into believing
and conforming to the
media messages.